This is one of those books that I have been meaning to read for quite some time. I had read the entire Anne of Green Gables series one summer... quite a while ago actually, but never made it to Emily. When my professor put the book on my Atlantic Canadian fiction course, though, I was quite happy. The novel is about a young girl on the brink of maturity, struggling with the obstacles that life has thrown her way. Her mother died when she was very young, so for several years it had been just her and her father. Then, he develops tuberculosis and she finds herself alone in the world until her mother's relatives claim her. It is an interesting process of elimination as to which family she winds up with, because instead of the family deciding which one wanted her, they make her draw a name out of a hat of all things. So, she starts off her new life feeling quite alone.
New Moon, the house she ends up at, has many adventures waiting for her. Instead of an author like Anne is in her series, Emily prefers poetry and only dabbles in the novel format. Her family does not consider it an appropriate pasttime for a young lady, so she finds that she has to hide it from them. It is a novel that covers many things: the lose of a parent, the adjustment to a new house, crazy relatives, pursuing an unorthidox career for young ladies of the time, and much more. Emily is a remarkable young lady and very unconventional for her time. I saw many parallels with Anne, but at the same time Emily is her own person. That left me with the question of who I liked better, Emily or Anne. I think they both have wonderful atributes, but I have been in love with Anne of Green Gables for many years and just can not replace it so easily.
I am afraid to say anymore about this novel because I think that Emily is something that you have to experience without much forward knowledge. The fact that I find her sort of annoying might not appeal to people, so I don't want to discourage reading her!
4/5
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